If anything happened to her
by Chiara08
Summary: Just a one-shot about what I think could've happened after that last scene of 2.09. Will Waverly get to Nicole's in time to save her? Is it Nicole at the hospital? Is she dying, is she okay? Why is Waverly crying in Wynonna's arms? Just read to find out.


**Hey, guys, I was reading through this story the other and I noticed I'd made tons of grammar mistakes. I apologize, but English isn't my first language and I'm really doing my best to write my stories as best as possible. Anyway, I've corrected, hopefully, all the mistakes I could find and I've reuploaded the story. Again, I'm so sorry for the terrible grammar and thank you for bearing with my poor English.**

"Well, do you think she's up yet?"

"Miss pleat-in-her-pants is probably doing a sun salutation as we speak, but she'll open the door for you. No matter what time."

Waverly couldn't help but replaying Rosita's last words in her head. She remembered telling Nicole not to shut her out at the sheriff station when she was still possessed by the demon and Rosita's words only made her feel even worse for doing exactly what she'd asked her girlfriend not to do. She felt so bad thinking about the text she'd sent the redhead. She was mad at her, yes, but the girl didn't deserve that much hatred. Oh my god, she probably thinks I hate her! The young Earp felt like the road to her girlfriend's house was ten times longer than usual; she needed to see her and let her know that things would be okay, that, yes, she didn't like Nicole lying to her, but she also understood she was just trying to protect her. She was just hoping her words hadn't done irreparable damage to their relationship, because she couldn't imagine a future without the other girl in it. What Waverly didn't know, though, was that another redhead was paying Nicole a visit while she was on her way there and the life of her girlfriend was then in serious danger.

* * *

As Rosita had predicted, miss pleat-in-her-pants was already up and about, getting ready for the day ahead. She was making breakfast when she heard a knock on the door. Waverly. Or at least that's who she was hoping to see standing outside her front door. After three unheard messages left in the girl's voicemail and a really nasty text in response to her apologies, she felt like a fool to still have hope the other girl might ever want to talk to her again. She was pretty sure Waverly was not the one knocking at her door, but who else could it be? It's not like she had friends who might come looking for her.

"Waves?" She asked opening the front door and hoping with all her might it was indeed her girlfriend standing outside.

Her big smile, ready to welcome the other girl, soon disappeared, though. That was definitely not Waverly Earp. What the hell was Mercedes Gardner doing at her house and why was she dressed up as one of those black widows BBD had been dealing with lately?

"Sorry to disappoint you, I'm afraid I'm not the person you were hoping to see..." she said with a mischievous smile.

"What do you want from me? I'm out of BBD, if you're looking for your dear seal, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong person." Nicole tried to keep her voice sure and steady while mentally cursing herself for leaving her gun in her bedroom.

"Oh, I know you don't have the third seal..." the smile on her face looked even more mischievous if possible. The widow took a few steps forward, forcing Nicole to step away from the threshold and into the house. The woman didn't bother closing the door behind herself once she was inside.

"You might not have what I'm looking for, but I need you to send a message to Wynonna Earp and her fellows. It'll be a warning: they've put themselves against the wrong person and now they're gonna pay the price for their interference."

Nicole kept on moving backwards slowly, hoping to find an object into her living room, anything, really, to use as protection from this creature. "If you think I'm gonna help you hurt my friends... you're gonna have to pass on my dead body before that happens." She tried her best to sound somewhat threatening, but her words seemed to amuse the widow, who started laughing.

"Oh, sweetie... that's exactly what I intend to do!" And with that Mercedes moved farward towards Nicole. Her movement had been way too fast for the other woman to process what was happening. The cop had found herself pinned to the ground and, before she could've defended herself in any way, the widow's hands were closing on her throat suffocating her. She brought her own hands up to try and tear the vicelike grip away from her neck, but her lungs weren't receiving enough air and she felt her strength starting to waver. She wasn't gonna give up so easily, though. Gasping for air she kept kicking and tossing her legs till the widow had enough and froze her limbs still. Her vision was becoming blurrier by the second, her head was pounding and her lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen, but she still managed to register one hand leaving her throat and a piercing pain crossing her abdomen. She wasn't sure what the woman was doing to her, but she knew it was bad. She'd lost the fight. It's incredible how long the list of things you wished you'd done before passing is in the moment you find yourself at death point. She wished she'd never lied to Waverly, so the person she cared most about in her life wouldn't be hating her right then. It was too late to go back, though... if only her girlfriend were there... she'd die a happy girl if only she could see those hazel eyes staring into hers one last time...

"Nicole! Get away from her!"

Waverly... Nicole smiled at the sound of the girl's voice before her vision went black and her body still.

* * *

Waverly had finally reached Nicole's house after what felt like an eternity. She wanted nothing more than to see her girlfriend and finally make things right between the two of them. She practically jumped out of her car, in a rush to get to Nicole, and she was about to sprint towards the house when she noticed something wasn't quite right. The front door was wide-open. Her girlfriend, the one person who would scold her all the time for not locking the front door even when she was in the house, she would've never left her own door open like that. Something must've happened. Waverly felt her blood run cold at the idea that someone could've hurt Nicole. She silently opened the door on the driver's side of her car and she grabbed the ninja sticks Dolls had made her keep in her jeep, just in case she'd found herself in danger. She took her phone out of her pocket and dialed Wynonna's number to send her sister a text to let her know where she was, so if anything bad were to happen to her, the woman would've known where to start looking.

'At Nicole's. Something's wrong. I think someone has forced their way into her house. It might be nothing, though. I'll let you know if I find anything.' She typed as fast as she could and, then, she put her phone back into her pocket. She felt a vibration coming from the device only seconds later, but she didn't have time to waste, so she didn't bother checking if it was Wynonna's response. She was almost at the door when she heard someone laughing. It was definitely not the sound of her girlfriend's laughter and there was something about it that made her whole body shiver. She entered the house and followed the voice to the living room. Once inside the room, Waverly was faced with a view that paralyzed her: Nicole was on the floor, blood was flooding profusely from her abdomen and Mercedes Gardner dressed as one of those widows was straddling her and choking her. Panic overcame the girl, but, somehow, she still managed to scream out for the woman in black to get away from Nicole. She saw the redhead's eyes turn to her briefly, unfocused, and then closing, her whole body fell limp. Slowly Mercedes raised up to her feet and turned to face Waverly.

"You really think you can defeat me with those toothpicks?" she said with an amused tone.

"Maybe not, but I'm certainly going to try." She said readying herself for the attack.

"Well, look at you, not going down without a fight, just like your precious cop. Too bad she did go down, though… and you're gonna follow her." With that she sprinted forward, warding off every blow coming from Waverly. She could've just frozen the girl and left, but she chose to let the young Earp fight a little, just to have some fun. She'd just avoided Waverly's latest blow when she heard the sound of car engines coming from outside followed by a familiar voice.

"Baby girl, are you okay?" Wynonna, worried by her sister's text, had called Dolls and Doc to go check if Waverly and Nicole were alright.

She was walking towards the house when, suddenly, a figure in black rushed out of the front door. It took Wynonna a few seconds to realize what was happening before she yelled at the others: "I'll try and get her! You go check on Waverly and Nicole!"

Before either Doc or Dolls had time to react she'd taken off after Mercedes. The two men sighed and went inside to do as the Earp heir had requested. The scene happening into the living room broke both of their hearts: Waverly was kneeling down on the floor next to Nicole's motionless body. The young Earp was crying and begging for the other girl to hold on.

"Nicole, Nicole come on! Please, please!" Waverly didn't notice her friends' presence, all she could see was her girlfriend's bleeding and limp body. "Please, Nicole, please don't die! You can't leave me. I love you! See, I said it back, I love you! You have to stay with me, okay?!" She knew the begging wasn't gonna get air into Nicole's unbreathing body, but she couldn't bring herself to do anything but that.

Dolls quickly knelt down in front of Waverly and tried to get the girl's attention. "What happened?!" The only response he got from the girl was a shake of her head and more crying. He knew Waverly was in too much shock to help him right then, so he leant down and tried to see if Nicole was breathing and if she still had a heartbeat. Not finding any, he started doing CPR on the girl.

Meanwhile Doc, on Dolls orders, had called 911. Nicole's house wasn't too far from the hospital, so the ambulance would've been there in only a few minutes.

When Wynonna got back, having lost Mercedes in her chase, she'd found an ambulance parked next to her car. Panic overtook her features at the possibility that her sister could be seriously hurt or worse. She ran into the house and was relieved to hear her sister's voice, but her relief didn't last long. Tears came to her eyes the moment she saw her sister begging the paramedics to help Nicole because she wasn't breathing. A woman took Dolls' place doing the CPR and a man held a mask on the cop's mouth, trying to pump some oxygen into her lungs. A third person was trying to stop the bleeding in Nicole's abdomen by putting pressure on it with some gauzes. After a few minutes of that and hundreds of questions directed to Waverly, to which the girl had barely answered, the paramedics gave up with the CPR ad went for the defibrillator. The blood was still flooding from Nicole's abdomen, which made defibrillating all but an easy task. After three shots, the electrocardiogram finally registered a heartbeat. The paramedics quickly positioned the girl onto a stretcher and brought her into the ambulance. Since Waverly showed no intention of letting go of her girlfriend's hand, the paramedics had agreed to let her come with her onto the ambulance and they had all taken off towards the hospital.

* * *

Waverly followed the stretcher inside the ER till the glass doors behind which only doctors and patients were allowed. She heard the paramedics explaining to the doctors what had happened and, then, a woman telling her she had to wait outside. There was something about her… "Mattie?" The woman turned to her for a moment before disappearing behind the doors with Nicole and the other doctors. Waverly was left there staring at her hand which had been holding her girlfriend's only moments before and wondering what the heck the Blacksmith was doing as a doctor at Purgatory's hospital.

A nurse kindly showed her to the waiting room and told her she would direct her sister and friends there once they arrived. The young Earp managed to whisper a thank you before sinking in a chair in the corner far away from the other people in the room with her. She picked out her phone and noticed Wynonna had sent her a text. They were parking the car, the would've been there in a minute; she managed to read, even though she could barely make out the words on the screen through the tears still present in her eyes. She tried to dry her eyes with her hands as best as she could, but the tears seemed to keep coming down with no way of stopping them. She unlocked the screen to respond to her sister's text, but a soft sob left her mouth when her eyes fell on her wallpaper. It was a picture of her and Nicole holding Calamity Jane, the cop's cat. Waverly had found it pretty adorable that the redhead had bought herself a cat with a ginger fur which matched her own hair. She loved that small being, all purrs and cuddles.

"Hey, baby girl." The young Earp was brought back to reality by Wynonna's voice. Her sister sat down beside her, but she didn't say anything else. She didn't ask her how she was doing, to which she was extremely grateful. That question was so silly, especially when asked to somebody sitting in the waiting room of a hospital. She noticed Doc and Dolls taking the seats in front of them, but no one said a word.

Waverly brought her focus back to her phone and clicked on the text icon. She visualized Wynonna's message and, then, she opened the conversation between her and Nicole. She stared at the words of the text she'd sent the other girl the day before and, just then, she realized she'd never even read what her girlfriend's texts said. She'd trusted Rosita's words when she'd said she'd seen lots of apologies, but she hadn't truly read them herself before sending that nasty text of hers. She took a deep breath before scrolling up to read the first of the four messages Nicole had sent her.

'I'm really really sorry! Please can we talk about this?'

'I miss you so much and I am so sorry!'

'Please call me? Sorry!'

'Waves! I'm sorry! Can we please talk?'

By the last text she could barely see the letters through her tears. She didn't want to draw attention to herself so tried not to sob, but she couldn't hide from her sister, who was sitting right next to her. Wynonna didn't want to push Waverly too much, but she also couldn't stand not being able to do anything to comfort her. She stared at the crying girl for a minute before she couldn't take it anymore. Very slowly she reached for her sister's hand and she clasped it in her own. It wasn't much, but it sure was better than doing nothing at all. When she felt Waverly squeeze her hand as a thank you for her support, she sighed in relief feeling a little less useless. They remained like that, in silence, for a few minutes before Nedley showed up in front of them.

"Wynonna." He said as politely as possible knowing that this was not the moment to express his dislike towards the older Earp. "Waverly, may I have a word with you, please?"

Wynonna was about to protest, but her sister squeezed her hand gently and let her know it was okay. The young Earp got up and joined the sheriff by the door, where they could talk in private.

"I'm sorry to disturb you in such a difficult circumstance, but you're the first eyewitness to have entered officer Haught's house and I would like to ask you a few questions about the attack."

There was hesitation in the girl's eyes and the man could imagine why. "Look, I know it was something... Supernatural... And that's usually a BBD case to deal with, but, Waverly, she is my deputy; I'm responsible for her, which makes this a case for the sheriff department as well." He knew Waverly Earp was one of the smartest people in Purgatory and she would've understood his point.

"Fine. But I'm afraid I won't be of much help: when I got there, Mercedes had already done the damage."

"Mercedes...?"

"Gardner. Or at least somebody who looked like her."

"I sent a small team to examine the scene at Nicole's house…" He talked slowly, studying every reaction on the girl's face. He knew that what he was about to tell her wasn't going to be easy for Waverly to hear, so he wanted to be as careful and delicate as possible. "They found no sign of the front-door lock being forced open, so... we guess she must've opened it herself. There were no signs of scuffle in the house either."

"She didn't get the chance to fight back…" Waverly whispered to herself.

"Waverly… This thing, whatever creature it is, do you know what she could've possibly wanted from your girlfriend?"

"No…" She'd been asking herself the same question ever since she'd found the widow attacking Nicole. "We do know what she's looking for, but… I made sure Nicole would stay out of all of this. She wasn't involved in Black Badge cases in any way, she… I… I tried to keep her out of danger." Waverly had given up fighting back the tears.

"Hey." Nedley put a hand under the girl's chin to make her look into his eyes. "This is not your fault, Waverly. You did what you could to keep her safe."

"It just wasn't enough."

"Baby girl…" Wynonna called from the door. "Doctor's here."

Waverly gave Nedley an apologetic look before turning to go inside after her sister. Once they were all standing in the waiting room, the doctor asked if they were the patient's family.

"No, we're… we're her friends…"

"She's her girlfriend." Wynonna offered, trying to help her sister.

"I see... Usually I could only talk to the patient's next of kin, but… her partner will do."

Waverly gave the doctor a grateful look before following the man to the side, where they could talk privately.

Wynonna, Doc and Dolls could not make out what the doctor was saying from where they were sitting, but Waverly's reaction was a clear indication of bad news. The Earp's heart was breaking at the sight of her baby girl crying like that and, once again, she felt absolutely useless. She had to use all her willpower not to run to her sister and bring her in for a tight hug. She noticed the doctor mouthing an apology before leaving the room and going back into the off-limits area. Waverly didn't move from her spot, but Wynonna could tell she was sobbing by the way her whole body was shaking. She didn't waste another second and moved to hug her sister. She didn't ask what the doctor had told her, she just waited for Waverly to be ready to talk. "The doctor told me that if she wakes up again I should say my goodbyes." The young Earp said, once she had calmed herself down a little, but still not leaving her sister's embrace.

"And what in the hell is that supposed to mean?" Doc asked as he and Dolls joined the two Earp girls.

Waverly finally leaned back to look at her friend. She wasn't sobbing anymore, but tears were still running down her cheeks, so Wynonna gently wiped them away with her thumbs.

The young girl took a deep breath before explaining everything to her friends.

"The doctor told me they did everything they could, but the lack of oxygen for such a long time might've caused serious brain damage. And even if we're lucky and that isn't the case, the wounds on her abdomen have done serious internal damage. They patched her up and put her in an induced coma, but…" she stopped and let a sob out. No one moved or said anything, they all just waited for her to be ready to continue. "He said there's no way she's gonna recover. They're keeping her sedated to alleviate her pain; he told me they could try and wake her up if I wished to say goodbye, but that would be extremely painful for her."

"How long can the machines keep her alive for?" Dolls asked.

"As long as her body can fight. It could be a day or an hour... She might even be dead right now. He said it's unpredictable." Wynonna brought her back into a hug when Waverly started sobbing again.

Dolls's phone went off moments later and he excused himself to go answer the call. Doc followed him outside to smoke a cigarette. He couldn't stand not being able to do something to help Waverly. Dolls hung up and went to stand by Doc's side.

"It was Mercedes. She has Nedley and she's going to kill him if we don't bring her the third seal."

"You're not seriously thinking about giving it up to her without a fight."

"No, but we can't let her kill the sheriff either."

"Why? He's not indispensable…"

"He's a person, Doc. We're talking about an innocent human being who has nothing to do with this all curse thing. If we don't try and save him, then we're just as bad as those creatures are."

Doc didn't seem so convinced, but he still agreed they should do all they could to keep Nedley alive. He finished his cigarette and together they went inside to let the Earp girls aware of the situation which had come up.

"Ok, so, here's the plan." Wynonna started once Dolls had explained what Mercedes had told him on the phone. "I go and find that Mercedes-look-alike widow and you stay here with Waverly."

"What? No! No way you're going out there alone. Nicole is dying, I am not going to lose my sister too." Waverly protested.

"Waverly's right. You're not going to face that widow on your own. I'm coming with you." Dolls said followed by Doc.

"I sure ain't gonna miss the chance to punch a bunch of holes in that bitch."

"Okay, fine. Doc, it's your ring that bitch wants, it's probably better if we keep you and the widows away from the hospital. You can come with, but Dolls, I need you to stay here and watch over my sister."

"I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, baby girl. But I would never forgive myself if I left you here all alone with everything you're going through."

"I swear, if you let anything happen to her…" Dolls started addressing Doc threateningly.

"Woah, easy tiger." Wynonna jumped in between the two men stopping Dolls before he could finish his sentence. Once she was positive they weren't going to kill each other any time soon, she stepped to the side. Waverly hugged her tight and Wynonna could feel she was crying again.

"Hey… Hey, it's okay. You're not gonna lose me today, okay?" She waited for her sister to lean back so she could look her in the eyes. "You trust me? Trust us?"

The young Earp gave her a small nod before adding: "Just, please, be careful. Both of you."

"Always." Wynonna said surely letting her sister know she truly meant her words.

"Call me if you need help."

"Yes, man." Wynonna said, loving to mock Dolls whenever he acted a little bossy.

With that she and Doc left the hospital, leaving Dolls and Waverly alone. The young Earp stared at the door for a moment before sinking into her friend's arms, sobbing once again. Her girlfriend was dying, her sister was going on what was likely to be a suicide mission and there was absolutely nothing she could do to protect the two people she cared most about in her life. Dolls was not the type to show too much affection, but for Waverly he would make an exception. He would never admit it, but seeing the girl so broken and fragile had brought tears to his eyes.

* * *

As Wynonna and Doc were taking care of Mercedes, Dolls had received a call from the sheriff station denouncing a strange activity at Shorty's. The deputy on the phone had told him a strange woman was attacking everyone. Apparently, she was looking for what she called "the third seal", whatever that was. She was wearing a Victorian black gown and black gloves. Some people had recognized her as Beth Gardner, although the only thing the two women had in common was the face. Dolls quickly understood that, if one widow had taken possession of Mercedes's face, then the other one must've taken that of the Gardner's younger sister. He ordered the deputy to stand back and let him take care of the situation; the last thing he wanted was to have to explain to all of the sheriff's officers all the kinds of supernatural things that were going on in Purgatory.

Dolls would've gone to take care of Beth on his own, but, of course, Waverly had protested. "Two is better than one." She'd reasoned; plus, she was not going to risk losing someone else. The Black Badge team, Nicole, Rosita, they were all her family in a way and she was certainly going to fight to keep them safe. The man hesitated for a moment, knowing Wynonna would've never forgiven him if anything happened to her little sister on his watch, but, in the end, he had to give up. There was absolutely no way he could convince the young Earp to stay at the hospital and let him take care of the widow on his own. Waverly was definitely Wynonna's sister when it came to her stubbornness. He left Wynonna and Doc a quick message to let them know they would be at Shorty's and, then, they left the hospital together.

They were about to go inside when Waverly's phone went off. "Wynonna." She let Dolls know before taking the call. The Earp heir and Doc had managed to take down Mercedes and save Nedley; The sheriff had been beaten up pretty badly and an ambulance was taking him to the hospital as they were speaking, whereas she and Doc were on their way to Shorty's.

"She says to wait for her and Doc to get here. They're not far away, it should only take them a couple of minutes." She told Dolls once she'd hung up.

"There are innocent people inside. They don't have a couple of minutes. I'm going in!" He rushed through the doors before Waverly had even had the chance to process what was happening.

"Wait! Dolls!" She yelled after him, but it was too late. She sighed heavily. She should've probably done as her sister told her and wait for Wynonna and her big-ass gun to get there, but it's not like she could've just left Dolls in there all alone. Yes, he was a spitting-fire lizard/dragon, but that didn't mean he was immortal. She took a deep breath, clutched the ninja sticks in her hands a bit tighter and, then, followed her friend inside.

Once in, she found people knelt down on the floor with their hands up and begging Beth to let them go. When Dolls saw her, he got an idea.

"I can't go all fire-spitting dragon with these many people, I can't control the flames. I might end up burning some of them."

"So… what do you suggest we do?" Waverly whispered back, trying not to be heard by the widow who was walking towards them.

"I try and distract her, you get these people out of here." They quickly nodded at each other in agreement before moving to action.

When Wynonna and Doc got there, they found some people running away from Shorty's, others standing in the street, crying and holding each other. There was no sign of Waverly and Dolls, so they assumed the two had decided to ignore their instructions completely. Walking inside they found a few frozen people on the floor and Dolls trying his best to direct his flames only at the widow. Waverly wasn't there, or, at least, neither one of them could see her around.

"Dolls! Where's Waverly?!" Wynonna yelled at him.

"Why? Isn't she h-" The second he got distracted to take a look around the room in search of the young Earp was enough for Beth to attack and freeze him.

"Damn it! Dolls!"

"Wynonna! Watch out!" Doc screamed out jumping in front of her to shield her from the widow and ending up frozen on the floor as well.

"Doc!"

"Well, well. It appears it's just you and me, at last, Wynonna. Your dear gun isn't gonna save you this time." She laughed mischievously.

"Tell that to your sister. Oh wait, you can't. 'Cause my 'dear gun' has just sent her back to hell, where she belongs. And you're gonna join her!" Before she had time to fire Peacemaker, though, Beth's icy blow had hit her and she too fell down on the floor, frozen.

"Oh, I'm so going to enjoy killing Wyatt Earp's last heir…" As she was bending down on Wynonna, she didn't notice Waverly had unfrozen and was coming at her from her back.

The young Earp moved silently, so to take her by surprise. She managed to reach Beth and sister and she hit the widow on the head with all the strength she had. Of course, it wasn't enough to knock her out, but it did stun her long enough for Dolls to get back on his feet and resume firing at her. Not long after, Doc joined in, firing bullets into the woman, but she was still standing strong. With a quick wave of her hand, the widow managed to send both men to the floor, unconscious. Suddenly, it was just Beth and Waverly and the young Earp didn't feel so brazen anymore. The mischievous smirk that made its way on the widow's lips sent a shiver down her spine. She began backing away as the other woman started moving towards her.

"You cannot run from me, baby girl."

Baby girl? No one was allowed to call her that but Wynonna! Wynonna! Waverly mentally screamed in relief when she saw her sister starting to move on the floor. The widow was getting closer and closer by the second, but her sister was still too out of it to notice. She had to do something to get her attention. She took one more step back and hit the counter of the bar with her back. She was trapped. She had to act fast.

"Wynonna!" She shouted on top of her lungs. If anyone could've heard her, they would've gotten their blood freeze in their veins for how heart wrenching that scream was. It did work, though, because, the moment the older Earp heard her sister's desperate voice, she jumped back on her feet. Well, it wasn't exactly actually that quick of an action, considering how difficult certain movements were getting as her baby bump kept growing more and more. She still felt a bit dizzy, but, when she registered what was happening, she held Peacemaker up and shot right in between the widow's eyes before Beth had had a chance to do anything.

* * *

Later that day…

Waverly had gone straight back to the hospital once everything had calmed down, whereas the others had gone home to rest and refresh a little. Wynonna had tried to convince her sister to go home with her and get some rest as well, but, of course, the young Earp had preferred going back to her girlfriend's side. She knew her sister, Doc and Dolls weren't actually going to get some rest, they would've just had a shower, changed into clean clothes and then they would've joined her at the hospital again. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to be on her own for more than half an hour or so till one of her friends showed up. She sat down in a chair by Nicole's bedside and she put her hand on the other girl's arm gently as she tried to find the right words to say. She wanted to apologize for her nasty words, she wanted to let her know that she didn't hate her. Quite the opposite, in fact, because Waverly loved the redhead with all of her soul and she really wished it wasn't too late to let her know that. Only it was indeed too late. Even if she did find the right words, what was the point? Nicole wasn't going to hear them. She would've never heard Waverly's voice again. Tears formed in the girl's eyes at the realization that she would've never heard Nicole's voice again, nor would've she seen her beautiful smile and loving brown eyes again. It didn't take long for those tears to turn into sobs, which were interrupted a few minutes later by her phone vibrating in her pocket. She messily dried her eyes before taking it out to see who it was. Rosita.

'Hey, Waverly. How are you holding up? I know, stupid question. Sorry. Doc told me everything that's happened, I'm so sorry about Nicole. If there's anything I can do…'

'Hey. Thanks, but, unless you know a way to save her life, I'm afraid there's not much you can do right now. Thank you for offering, though. I appreciate it.'

'Sure.' 'Waverly?'

'Yeah?'

'It's not your fault.'

Waverly didn't send her anything else. Her friends had been telling her that all day, but she still couldn't help but feeling guilty. Her mind had gone through all kinds of what ifs, even though she knew it was pointless. She couldn't change the past, no matter how much she wanted to.

As she was about to lock her phone and put it away, she noticed a notification pin on the side of the phone-calls icon. She clicked on it and saw there were three unheard messages in her voicemail. They were all from Nicole. That was going to be her last chance to hear the other girl's voice, Waverly thought to herself. With a deep breath, she pressed play on the first one. Waverly took a deep breath before pressing play on the first one.

'Hi, this is Waverly. Leave a message.' *din* 'Hey, Waves. I'm… so sorry. Please call me back so we can talk. Okay?'

She took a moment to look at Nicole. If only she'd called her back… Tears were blurring her sight, but she still managed to press play on the second message.

'Hi, this is Waverly. Leave a message.' *din* 'Hey, babe. I… look, I never should've opened that envelope. I mean, you know how caught up I've been in that case. I'm... I'm so sorry. Please, please can you just call me back? I love you, okay? Okay, bye.'

I love you. There were those three words again. Waverly wished Nicole hadn't said them the first time that day at Shorty's when they were arguing. She wished she'd said them louder that day when Willa was pointing a gun at her; she wished Nicole had heard them then. She wished she'd checked her damn voicemail before, so she could've called her girlfriend back to let her know she was forgiven, that she loved her back. She wished… But it was all worthless. It was too late.

"I'm so sorry." She cried taking Nicole's hand into hers. She stared at their joint hands for a moment, gently caressing her girlfriend's unmoving one with her thumb, careful not to touch the IV there. When the tears in her eyes stopped just enough to let her sight focus on the screen of her phone, she pressed play on the third and last message.

'Hi, this is Waverly. Leave a message.' *din* 'Hey, hum, it's me again. Look Waverly I… I love you. You're so important to me and I was stupid and I made a huge mistake. Please just call me back, okay? …Bye…'

That last "bye", barely audible, had been said with such a small voice that it was enough to break Waverly's heart for good. The girl leaned forward to rest her head onto their joint hands, always careful not to hit the IV, and there she sobbed for what felt like forever. That's how Wynonna found her 15 minutes later. Seeing her little sister like that was heartbreaking. She'd tried so hard to keep Waverly out of this mess that was the family curse; she'd even left Purgatory in the hope that her baby girl would've moved on with her life and would've forgotten about all the supernatural crap going on inside the Ghost River triangle. But it didn't work. Waverly was just too stubborn and smart to let the subject go. And what had she, Wynonna, the Earp heir, ever done to break the curse? She'd never done any research, she'd just run from her responsibilities as far as she could go. As if avoiding the problem could've made it disappear. Her sister was right: Waverly should've been the heir, not her. Wynonna would've given anything to switch sides with her little girl right then. To take the pain away from her. But she couldn't. all she could do was being there for Waverly, she had to be strong for the both of them, just like her little sister had when she broke down due to the whole pregnancy situation.

Wynonna knelt down beside Waverly's chair and she gently brushed the hair away from her sister's face before leaning in to kiss her on her temple. That caught the young Earp's attention, she leaned back into her chair and dried her eyes as best as she could. Wynonna helped her by rubbing her thumbs along her cheeks to catch the tears that were still running down.

"Hey."

"Hey." Waverly said back in the smallest voice her older sister had ever heard from her.

"Here." Wynonna offered her a tissue.

"Thanks."

They both kept silent for a while as they stared at Nicole's small form, covered in tubes and needles.

"I don't think I can do this, Wynonna. I can't say goodbye." She turned to her sister and sank into her arms, weeping.

"Ssssh. It's okay." She cursed herself for saying something so stupid, but she'd never been good at finding comforting words.

"We have to save her. There has to be another way."

"I wish there was, baby girl. But we have neither the medicine nor the magic to do that."

"Wait. Say that again."

"We have neither the medicine nor the magic to do that…"

"You're a genius!"

"Oh well, thank you. Wait, why am I a genius exactly?"

"We, we don't have either of those things, but what if knew somebody who is both a doctor and a witch?"

"Alright… You're gonna have to give me more than that, baby girl."

"I saw Mattie earlier this morning. The Blacksmith. I don't know how she's still alive, but she is and she works here as a doctor."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I saw her this morning with the other doctors when they were taking Nicole in."

"Okay… So, do you want me to go and find her?"

But before Waverly could say anything, a voice sounded from the door. "You won't have to worry about that. How can I help?"

"Mattie!" Waverly said almost cheeringly, without answering the woman's question.

"So…"

"Right, sorry." Waverly hesitated a moment before explaining her plan to save Nicole. "You were able to cast a binding spell on me to make me the owner of that skull… Could you… Would you be able to bind a person's life to that of another?"

"You want me to bind your and Nicole's lives together?"

"That could work, right? If her life is linked to mine… as long as I live, so does she."

"Waverly… You do realize what you're asking me to do? Binding two lives together is a very intimate thing. You'll be connected forever. If you die, she dies. And vice versa."

"I know. I… I understand." She did get that it was a drastic solution, one that Nicole might not have agreed with, but she was desperate. "Look, if she dies today, I'll die with her. Spell or not spell, I can't live without her. Please. I love her…" She begged, hoping those words would've worked as they had with Wynonna not long before.

"How are we supposed to explain to her doctor how his patient miraculously woke up?"

"We'll just… we'll just tell him it was really a miracle." It was a stupid answer, but it was the best she could've come up with.

Mattie gave her a look, but, then, she finally gave in. "Alright. Fine. Just give me a few minutes. I'll be right back."

"Thank you."

"Are you sure about this, baby girl?" Wynonna asked her when Mattie had left the room.

"Do you have a better idea?" No. Her sister nodded with her head.

* * *

About 20 minutes later…

"Okay, I'm back. Sorry it took me so long." Mattie said as she got back into the room. "So, it wasn't easy, but I managed to convince Nicole's doctor to pass me her case. I'm officially her doctor now, which, hopefully, will make this easier for us."

"So, how does it work? Do you just wave your magic wand above their heads and pronounce some unintelligible spell?"

"Wynonna…" Waverly scolded her sister.

"What?" She tried, only to give up under her sister's hard stare. "Fine. No more talking. Got it. I'll be a good girl."

Mattie found the exchange between the Earp sisters quite amusing, but she did her best to hide her chuckles. When the two girls' attention was brought back on her, she continued.

"Alright, then. Are you ready?"

"Yeah. I am. What do you need me to do?"

"Just hold her hand. The spell will do the rest." She waited for Waverly to grab hold of her girlfriend's hand and, when they were all in position, she started reciting the enchantment. Nothing happened. No blinding light, no weird feeling, nothing.

"Well, did it work?" asked Wynonna.

"There's only one way to find out." Mattie moved to turn off the machines keeping Nicole alive, but Waverly stopped her.

"Wait. What if it didn't work?"

"If didn't work, she'd die anyway. You know that."

"Yeah, but…" Suddenly she was terrified. She knew she was never going to be ready to say goodbye, but she hoped she had more time.

Wynonna came to stand by her side and took hold of her free hand to let her know she wasn't alone. If it didn't work, she'd have to say goodbye, but Wynonna was going to be there with her. Waverly looked at the screen showing Nicole's heartbeat, the proof that she was still alive, and, then, she nodded at Mattie her permission to turn the machines off.

For a few seconds nothing happened. It was quiet. But, then, the monitor started beeping loudly till Nicole's heart stopped beating. Waverly felt as her own heart had stopped as well and she was about to let out a broken sob, when suddenly a heartbeat was registered on the monitor. It was one and then another and another. It'd worked. Nicole was alive and breathing on her own. Waverly sighed in relief and finally let out the sob she'd been holding back. Only this time they were tears of joy, not despair. Wynonna wrapped her arms around her sister as tight as she could with her baby bump taking up most of the space between them.

"I'll leave you girls alone." Mattie said and moved to leave the room to give the three of them some space.

"Mattie." Wynonna called after her. "Thank you." Mattie gave her a nod before getting out of the door.

"Hey, baby girl?"

"Yeah." She asked from the crook of her sister's neck.

"I think your girlfriend's waking up."

Waverly leaned back abruptly and turned to face the bed. There she was met by the sight of two beautiful brown orbs searching the room for some landmark. When Nicole's eyes landed on the young Earp, a small smile appeared on the cop's face.

"Waves." She said in a faint voice.

"Hey you." Waverly smiled back at her, moving towards the bed.

She still had to explain to her girlfriend everything that'd happened. Nicole was probably not going like the idea of having their lives bound together, but Waverly didn't care. The woman she loved was alive, none of the rest mattered in that moment.

 **Ta-dah! So, what did you guys think? Did you like it? Please, feel free to send me your reviews and thoughts.**


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